Thursday, May 29, 2008

Top Secret Project - revealed!

The past two weeks have been so crazy...between my son's graduation and everything that needed to be done before hand and after, including dealing with illnesses, concerts, Memorial Day parade, and having a house guest...that I have neglected my blogging (reading and writing) terribly.
Now back to the business at hand .... my knitting! Yes, even with everything I had to do, I've still been knitting away.

The first thing I want to show you is my top secret project. A sweater for my oldest son's girlfriend's (Kate) birthday present. Her birthday is tomorrow, but I gave it to her last Saturday.
I am not very fond of knitting sweaters, but when I saw this pattern ~ Blaze ~ I thought it had Kate's name written all over it. I had a feeling it would be something she would like. This sweater is knit totally in the round.
The only seams are under the arm which I should have grafted, but I hate grafting so I opted for a three needle bind off instead:
I rationalized the fact that what ever I did, it wouldn't really show because it's under the arm.

I LOVED knitting the zig zag all over pattern, which is really cables.
I followed the pattern exactly as written(size medium), no modifications except that I used a different yarn, Lion Brand Microspun sport yarn. This yarn is so soft and just heavenly to work with. I recommend it highly and the best part it's machine washable and dryable, which is a must for a very busy college student! When I came close to the end I have to confess that I was worried about the neckline bindoff. The first attempt was a bit loose, so I pulled it out and redid it being very careful to bind off extra tight. The results were perfect.

Kate was thrilled with the sweater. The color, the fit was perfect. She immediately tried it on and of course I had to get some pictures of her modeling it:
She was so appreciative and I knew she genuinely love it. She just didn't say she liked it...she showed me how much she LOVED it. She was ecstatic!! It made my day! I love to knit for Kate. Now I have to start thinking what to make for her Christmas present??

I also finished a diagonal Bee Stitch baby blanket for my church's prayer shawl ministry. I'm very happy with the results:
It's difficult to tell from the photo that the stitch reminds me of a thermal blanket. The resulting blanket is very soft and cuddly. I used the diagonal bee stitch dishcloth pattern and kept on knitting until there were 70 eyelet holes on one side. It makes a nice sized blanket using a size 10 1/2 needle.

Robin update: Not good news I'm afraid to tell you. Mrs. Robinson laid 3 beautiful eggs. She was a very attentive mother. On Sunday, one of the eggs hatched. From my bedroom window I could see the tiny hatchling with it's wide open mouth! Mr. and Mrs. Robinson were taking turns feeding the baby. Then on Monday, my neighbor's cat was seen prowling around the bush. Mrs. Robinson was very upset, squawking on the power line above. I threw water at the cat. After that episode the nest has not been attended to by Mrs. Robinson. The cat may have come back when we weren't looking. Very upsetting, but it is nature and from what I have read baby robins do not have a very high survival rate.

Can't believe June is right around the corner. School will be out soon and the summer will be upon us. Have a nice weekend with lots of happy knitting :)

33 comments:

  1. What a special, special gift! That sweater is truly beautiful, and looks lovely on her.

    Congrats to your son, too, for graduating. It's a great achievement!

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  2. Yay! Graduation! I wondered if you had a graduating child when you vanished.

    That sweater is beautiful, you did an awesome job.

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  3. Hey girl!! I missed you! Welcome back!

    You really have been busy. That pullover is awesome, I really like that color.

    Hugs!!!

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  4. Congrats to the graduate. I love that sweater!!! If it was in purple she'd have to watch out!!! Ha ha That blanket looks nice and warm.

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  5. zig zag sweater looks wonderful, but it's CABLES??? I'd be crazy by now I think. WOW

    So sorry about the baby Robins.

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  6. first off, missed you! congrats to your son.. awesome! the sweater is BEAUTIFUL! and sad to hear about your Robins... however, as protective as I was with mine and they all survived and were all stuffed in their little nest -- they attacked me anyway. They've all gone now and I'm happy to have my backyard back!

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  7. Congrats to the graduate.
    The sweater and the baby blanket turned out great and how wonderful she was excited about it. It looks nice on her.
    I have not knit with the microspun, no one around here sells it. I will have to check it out the next time I need to go to work during the day, there are more craft stores there.

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  8. Congrats to ds.....and his girlfriend got THE gift. That is beeeeeeautiful. Thanks, once again, for inspiring me in a new direction!

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  9. I was wondering where you were all this time. Congrats to your son on his graduation. I love love love that sweater you knit, very nice gift indeed. So sorry to hear about the Robin family.

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  10. congratulations on the graduation, you must be so proud! The jumper is gorgeous, looks like you've got a new fan there!

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  11. Congratulations to your son Nick! I love that sweater! That's such a beautiful color and a beautiful textured pattern. It looks great on too! Operation Stealth Project was a massive success!

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  12. Wow, you HAVE been busy! The sweater is fabulous! I love the color & the pattern looks like a fun knit.

    Did you make the graduate cake..I'm guessing you did. It's lovely, especially the writing. DGD #1 is a budding cake decorator..can't wait to show her. Again, congrats to your son.

    The blanket is very nice & I'm sure it will be loved.

    Cats!! I don't want to start a riot so I'll just say sorry about the birds.

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  13. Congratulations on the graduation! I can remember how exciting it was for our children! The cake looks delicious, and BIG! The sweater turned out wonderful. It's very different, haven't seen it before. It's so nice that she loved it. It makes knitting for others that much worth while.
    It's interesting that Robin Babies don't have a high survival rate, because there are so many around. I've defended a nest from a crow once. Our Robin did get three of them out of the nest eventually.

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  14. Beautiful sweater! I'm going to have to add this one to my queue. It's so nice to knit for people that really really appreciate it! :)

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  15. You all have been busy! Congratulations to the graduate.

    The sweater is so sharp, I can see why she loved it. I've used that yarn and the shade of blue is striking.

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  16. Gorgeous sweater - and it looks so nice on her! And how nice for you to have someone to knit for that loves what you make! Congrats to your son too!

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  17. Woo Hoo...Congrats to Nick!!
    That is a gorgeous sweater and it could not have fit her more perfectly! I love that zig zag..I've never knit with the Microspun but I have felt it and it's wonderful.

    So sorry about the little robins...you're right though...that's the way of nature.

    Hugs!

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  18. That sweater is so pretty - what a lucky girl!!

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  19. Congratulations to the graduate! That's great! The sweater is so pretty and it looks adorable on her. That's so great that you can tell she really likes it!!

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  20. Warm congratulations on your son's graduation. You must be SO proud! :)

    PS: Beautiful work on Kate's jumper. I don't know how you managed to get it all done!

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  21. Oh.......graduation, such a special time. When my daughter graduated from college I was very meloncholy instead of excited. Frankly, so was she. She LOVES school, and really didn't want it to be over. How's your son feel about it? What's he doing next?

    LOVED the sweater, what a fantastic pattern. How neat to have someone who soooooo appreciates your efforts in their behalf.

    Swing by for a visit, I've been stitching up a storm too. And should get off the computer and back to it. lol

    Hope the illnesses have subsided. Take Care, and enjoy the wkend.
    Sandy

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  22. The sweater is divine!! Such a lovely pattern and color for a young lady. I love the knit in the round sweaters too.

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  23. Congrats to your son, and WOW! What a fantastic gift! You did a fab job knitting this and choosing the yarn:)I may have to add this to my ravelry queue. Lovely:)

    Ang

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  24. Congratulations to your graduate. You must be very proud and the cake is gorgeous. The zig zag sweater is so cute I'm sure she adores it.

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  25. you've been a busy girl. The sweater is beautiful as is the blanket... are they exactly the same color or is it my monitor?
    congrats to the son on his graduation.
    I am counting the days for school to be over!

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  26. Your sweater is so pretty! No wonder she loved it. :) Congratulations to your son, too. I'm sure he's very excited to be done!

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  27. what a gorgeous sweater! it looks great on her, too!

    congrats to your son. : )

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  28. Blaze is gorgeous! Nice work and such a great gift!

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  29. Carole,
    The baby blanket is about 2 shades lighter than the sweater. Hope that answers your question.

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  30. Your knitting is SO lovely! I haven't made anything in the sweater line yet but I'm hoping to make one for my husband first. For the time being, I'm sticking with smaller projects until after my surgery is finished. Thanks for your very kind words about that, too. :)

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  31. congratulations to nick (and to you, I'm sure you're all so very proud of him!). Kate is so lucky to have you to knit for her. The sweater looks great on her! The fit and the color. :) What's next up for her?? ;) i'm lovin' those zigzags too. I didn't know they were really cables! oh no, poor baby robins.

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  32. Happy Graduation, and congrats to you on that beautiful sweater! It's a perfect fit on Kate and is a great design! Sorry to hear of the Robin and the abandoned nest...

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Thank you all for your comments! I really appreciate them. I usually don't follow up with an email, but if you do have a question please make sure you include a way to reach you within your comment so I may answer your question. Thanks and happy knitting :)

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